Double
by Theheliumhamster
Summary: The Crew are surviving brilliantly in a not-so-distant future, but when Gubiak suffers his first ever helicopter incident, can the Crew confirm that they are alone, or that they are at 'Peace' with the other survivors they discover? In a world of smoke and mirrors, join Aaron, Josh, Will, Will and the rest of the Crew, as they tackle their greatest enemy yet: Double.


He was in his early twenties, about 6 feet tall and had short, styled brown hair that suited his chiselled, robust facial features. He wore a pair of black tracksuit bottoms which were in tatters towards the bottom. The leather boots he wore were also black, but too were in desperate need of repair. The aglets were missing, so the ends of the laces had frayed, making it difficult to see how they could ever be tied. It made sense for his clothing to be dark, as these were dangerous places, meaning he had to be stealthy to survive. At the top of his dark, tattered trousers lay a tarnished golden belt, a single silver 'H' engraved into the centre. This was of course, a reference to his undercover name; Hollow. The silky, navy blue top he wore was also in tatters, which had obviously been done recently, as blood still dripped from his chest wounds. The shirt too had a white 'H' printed on it, another reference to his name. Covering the bottom half of his face laid a piece of jet black material, which was what made him instantly recognisable. He also had a sash made of brown leather over his left shoulder. Upon his back were two sheaths, attached to the sash. In each sheath was a single, foot long short sword: Hollow's melee weapon of choice. Hollow had never been particularly fond of guns, but had found his 'zone' using more traditional methods of weaponry, such as swords, daggers and bows. However, despite his old-fashioned taste in warfare, he was excellent at what had become his life.

The sun began to set upon his world, abandoning it for yet another day. Hollow turned from the battered and apocalyptic ruins of what was once his home and turned to face the sloping hills that lay beyond, to see the landscape bathed in a heavenly orange glow, an almost alien scene. As he stood, staring into the emptiness of the view, a single tear fell down his face, because he knew what had been taken from the families who had lived there. He had failed, for the first time; he had been unable to fulfil his mission. In this moment, he made a promise to himself that he would never let this happen again.

A thick, croaky Polish voice shattered Hollow's mind back to the job in hand. "Hey Hollow, you done screwing up for today?" the voice taunted, but Hollow knew he meant well.

"I can't believe this…" he began, "Everything I've ever loved. Everything I've ever known. I let it slip through my fingers…."

"There was nothing you could do. They were too strong." The Polish voice encouraged.

"Just get me out of here Gubi. It's clear Peace wasn't here, or even if he was, he's dead now." Hollow's voice began to crack.

"We'll find him. He's alive, somewhere. I know he is. He has to be." The last few words were drowned out by the overwhelming noise of helicopter rotors up ahead. Hollow glanced up to see the harness had been released, ready for extraction. The leather safety mechanism included a large buckle, which clipped into place across his chest. Hollow silently bid farewell to his former home. He knew he wouldn't return. His focus turned to remaining calm as he was airlifted away. He didn't look back.

The helicopter in which the Polish man had flown to extract Hollow was dilapidated and old, obviously a retired model. It appeared to be Russian in origin, which began to explain how he had acquired it in the first place. The man sat centred in the cockpit, a vast array of buttons, dials and switches spread around him. The windscreen was panoramic and revolved around over 180 degrees. The man sat in the cockpit was of average height and had long flowing ginger hair, which he had decided to tie in a ponytail. This seemed fitting as he had a secret love of ponies. He wore a long, black overcoat, similar to the styles of eighteenth century Britain. Upon his head was a fire resistant crash helmet, not unlike those worn by motorcyclists. It was pink, of course, (his favourite colour) and had a black G decal on the back of it. Just as with Hollow's belt and shirt, it was a reference to his codename: Gubiak. Unfortunately, his fellow agents had dubbed him 'Gubi'.

Suddenly, he felt a gloved hand touch his shoulder. Gubiak jumped from his seat, twisting the helicopter's course towards the ground. However, his elite reaction times allowed him to quickly right the chopper. He looked behind him to see Hollow stood there, his clothes nothing, if not destroyed. "You're a _really_ bad person, you know that? We could have crashed then!" Gubi spat at him.

"If I thought we might not have made it back in one piece, I wouldn't have boarded." Hollow countered simply.

"Fair point." The pilot responded.

A crackly Yorkshire voice spoke down the radio, "Did you find him?"

"No," Hollow replied, matter-of-factly. "He's gone. We have to believe he's still alive out there somewhere."

"He has the key!"

"We'll find it. We'll find him. I don't know how, but we will." Hollow said, as the helicopter flew over the peak of mountainous hills, leaving the apocalyptic ruins of the city behind him, and forward, into the sunset.

The young Yorkshire man sat alone in a darkened room. He was sat at a painted black wooden desk; the only piece of furniture in the room. Upon the desk were two enormous computer modems, both having fading red lights upon them. In the centre was another computer modem, this one having blue lights. Each computer had two crystal clear High Definition monitors, each measuring 23 inches. The two keyboards which controlled the two main computers glowed dimly with a red aura. The headset he wore fizzled quietly as he awaited the response from his colleagues in the field. He wore a red hoodie, which had a large black question mark on the hood and an 'R' on both the front and back. To complement the red/black theme, he wore a pair of black joggers, nothing particularly special, just like his standard black Lonsdale trainers. However, the two pieces of innovative technology he had on his person were the flamboyant glasses he wore. They were red and black in colour, just like all of his attire, but the frames were styled similarly to a cartoon explosion, not unlike what is found within a comic strip. But these glasses had a secret; they had holographic screens which allowed him to contact the Generickan Secret Service; the organization he worked for, in case of need or a dire situation. It could also be used to remotely access the internet via its built in internet router, as well as completing online transactions and contacting colleagues.

"Rage! We're going down! Repeat! Going down! Someone sabotaged the chopper when we refuelled!"

"Is there any possibility you can cushion the crash?" The Yorkshire man responded calmly and showed no sign of panic.

"Rage, we are going down! Unless you want to explain to Pocket that both I and Gubi are dead, I suggest you HELP US!"

The thick Polish voice of Gubiak began to discuss options, "It must've been that Polish kid we came across at the refuelling station. He kept looking at me like I had killed a man. It was him. It must've been."

"But Gubi, he was just a kid; he can't have been more than 14 or 15. It can't have been him. He couldn't even have known how to fly a chopper, let alone how it works or how to sabotage one." Hollow seemed unusually defensive of this teen, even though he knew never to trust anyone in these places.

"Hollow, Gubi! Shut Up! I'll input automatic override," Rage said as he tapped a few keys on the right hand keyboard. He entered the command and a message appeared on screen, alongside a warning symbol. The message said 'Error. Incorrect ID. Password not accepted',

"Um, guys…?" Rage queried.

"What did you break this time?" Hollow responded, annoyed.

"I'm locked out. I can't help you."

"He was THE ONLY PERSON we saw whilst refuelling! He must've done it!" Gubiak was persistent.

"I've found it! Hold my leg Gubi! I'm gonna fix this." Hollow said, leaning out of the chopper.

"Do you know what you're doing?!" Gubiak was outraged.

"Not particularly, but when has something I've done ever gone wrong?" Hollow realised the problem with his sentence before he finished it, "You know what? Don't answer that."

Hollow swung down and held himself to the helicopter only via holding the landing gear. He scanned the sleek black underside of this beautiful machine that had never gone wrong, until now. In his peripheral vision, he caught a glimpse of a flashing red light. It was just out of his reach, even if he swung towards it. "Gubi!" Can you bank left a second?"

"I'll give it a damn good go!" Came the response.

Sure enough, Gubiak was able to fight with the controls just enough to bank the helicopter to the left, swinging Hollow with much more momentum than he could possibly manage on his own. As he swung over to the other side of the chopper, he grabbed the small device from the aluminium body. Gubiak then proceeded to allow the chopper to right itself, giving Hollow just enough speed to fling himself back up into the cockpit of the machine.

"You did it!" Gubiak said, a cheesy grin plastered upon his face.

"It's what I do."

"Let's get back to base, then we'll take a look at whatever the hell that is." The Pole planned out the remainder of the mission.

A young Welshman stood awaiting their arrival. He had been recruited later than the others and therefore was not entirely comfortable with everyone. He wore a dark blue hoodie, of the same manufacturing technique of Josh's, only his had a cartoon image of a light blue woollen sheep, which was obviously female, as the position in which it was designed from was questionable at best. Underneath the sheep decal was the words 'Vote Evanz' sprawled across the fabric, deliberately designed to look spray painted. He, like his colleague Rage, also wore black joggers but these were only his casual clothes for when he was roaming around the complex. He wore a much more flexible, more official uniform when he was out in the field. His hair was light brown, in a 'Baby'esque style, which had become his distinguishing feature. His bright blue eyes sparkled in the diminishing light as he awaited their return.

"How much longer are they gonna be Josh?" the brown haired man inquired.

"Any second now…" Josh spoke calmly down the intercom and, sure enough, at the count of 3, the old Russian helicopter appeared over the crest of the mountainous valley in which the base was situated.

"Evanz. Good to see you're back." Hollow had started another telecommunications call with him as they began their descent, "How are things?"

"So-so…" Evanz mused, "I genuinely thought those things would overwhelm me. When you had to retreat, I thought it was game over. But here I am."

"Jesus… That must've been hell…" Hollow trailed off. As the helicopter touched down, destroying the carefully styled hair of the Welshman who stood there to greet them.

"I'll get you for that and your stupid ponytail too!" Evanz yelled at Gubiak, in his most cliché Scooby Doo villain voice.

"Oh fear the mighty Evanz and his sheep-y minions!" Gubi mocked, childishly.

Rage decided to interrupt their little reunion by hacking their communications channel, "Could you three either get up here for debriefing, or get a bloody room, 'cause if I'm forced to watch anymore of this, I will violently vomit all over our new weapons."

"Oooh!" Evanz squealed excitedly, "New guns for me to play with!"

"Like a kid in a candy shop…" Hollow muttered under his breath as they marched into the elevator.

The trio stood in silence as the typical elevator music rattled out of the tinny speakers. Hollow glanced at the controls of the machine, which were composed of 3 buttons: G for ground, O for office and H for helipad. In silence he contemplated the 512 different ways in which this death trap waiting to happen could go wrong. After an unnervingly large amount of time, the elevator stopped and the usual ding sounded as the doors screeched open.

"Well, well, well… What do we have here?" Rage muttered, as the battered Hollow, sweating Gubiak and gleeful Evanz paced into the armoury.

"This." Hollow said sternly as he tossed the leeching equipment onto the table. As it landed, it swivelled, to face Rage and the new weaponry the group had acquired. It was a small black plastic orb, with three legs which it had used to fasten itself to the underside of the chopper. There was a single LED that flashed red, along with the word 'podwójny' written on it in white capitals.

"Double…." Gubi muttered.


End file.
